John E. Joseph -- Publications 1980-2003 (plus some later minor publications)
Books Authored
Limiting the Arbitrary: Linguistic Naturalism and its Opposites in Plato's Cratylus and Modern Theories of Language. (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences Series, 96.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000. Pp. ix, 224. ISBN: 1556197497.
The idea that some aspects of language are 'natural', while others are arbitrary, artificial or derived, runs all through modern linguistics, from Chomsky's GB theory and Minimalist program and his concept of E- and I-language, to Greenberg's search for linguistic universals, Pinker's views on regular and irregular morphology and the brain, and the markedness-based constraints of Optimality Theory. Limiting the Arbitrary traces the heritage of this linguistic naturalism back to its locus classicus, Plato's dialogue Cratylus. Part One is a detailed examination of the linguistic arguments in the Cratylus. Part Two follows three of the dialogue's naturalistic themes through subsequent linguistic history -- natural grammar and conventional words, from Aristotle to Pinker; natural dialect and artificial language, from Varro to Chomsky; and invisible hierarchies, from Jakobson to Optimality Theory -- in search of a way forward beyond these seductive yet spurious and limiting dichotomies.
"[A] must-read for any serious linguist, let alone a linguistic historiographer. [The author's] mission is to challenge linguists to reflect on their own fundamental assumptions and to recognize that there is nothing much new under the sun — and in this he succeeds admirably. The whole is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read." Nicola McLelland, Trinity College, Dublin
Order Limiting the Arbitrary from John Benjamins Publishing Company
Eloquence and Power: The Rise of Language Standards and Standard Languages. Foreword by James Milroy. New York: Basil Blackwell; London: Frances Pinter, 1987. Pp. xii, 200. ISBN: 1557860017 (Blackwell ed.), 0861876423 (Pinter ed.).
Books Edited
The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Studies on the Transition from Historical-Comparative to Structural Linguistics, in Honour of E. F. K. Koerner, ed. by Sheila Embleton, John E. Joseph and Hans-Josef Niederehe. Vol. 1: Historiographical Perspectives; Vol. 2: Methodological Perspectives and Applications. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999. ISBN: 1556197594 (v. 1), 1556197608 (v. 2).
History of Linguistics 1993: Papers from the Sixth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS VI) (Washington, D.C., 9-14 August 1993), ed. by Kurt R. Jankowsky, E. F. Konrad Koerner, John E. Joseph, and Anders Ahlqvist. (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences Series, 78.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995. ISBN: 9027245657 (Eur.) / 1556196148 (US).
Linguistic Theory and Grammatical Description: Nine Current Approaches. Ed. by Flip G. Droste and John E. Joseph. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series, 75.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1991. ISBN: 1556191030.
Ideologies of Language. Ed. by John E. Joseph and Talbot J. Taylor. (Politics of Language Series.) London and New York: Routledge, 1990. ISBN: 0415046807 / 0415046815 (pbk).
Applied Language Study: New Objectives, New Methods. Lanham, Md., New York, London: University Press of America, 1984. ISBN: 0819138576 / 0819138584 (pbk).
Chapters in Books
"Rethinking Linguistic Creativity". Rethinking Linguistics, ed. by Hayley Davis and Talbot J. Taylor, 121-150. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
"Is Language a Verb? Conceptual Change in Linguistics and Language Teaching". Language in Language Teacher Education, ed. by Hugh Trappes-Lomax and Gibson Ferguson, 29-48. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2002.
"Constructing Language and Identity". Language Curriculum and Instruction in Multicultural Societies, ed. by Willy A. Renandya and Nilda R. Sunga, 15-41. (Anthology Series, 42.) Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, 2001.
"The Exportation of Structuralist Ideas from Linguistics to Other Fields: An Overview". History of the Language Sciences: An International Handbook on the Evolution of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present, ed. by Sylvain Auroux, E. F. K. Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe and Kees Versteegh, vol. 2, 1880-1908. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2001 "Factors Affecting Students' Perceptions of the Status and Use of Languages in Lebanon" (with Mary L. Ghaleb, in Arabic with English and French abstracts). Chap. 9 of Language and Education / Al-Lugga wa Al-Taaleem, ed. by Kassim Shaaban. Beirut: Lebanese Association for Educational Studies, 2000.
"Language as Fiction: Writing the Text of Linguistic Identity in Scotland". English Literatures in International Contexts, ed. by Heinz Antor and Klaus Stierstorfer, 77-84. (Anglistische Forschungen series, 283.) Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 2000.
"Basic English and the 'Debabelization' of China". Intercultural Encounters: Studies in English Literatures in Honour of Rüdiger Ahrens, ed. by Heinz Antor and Kevin L. Cope, 51-71. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1999.
"Introduction: Problems of Structuralist Beginnings (and Endings)" and "Bibliography of Writings by E. F. Konrad Koerner, 1968-1998" (with Sheila Embleton and Hans-Josef Niederehe). The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Studies on the Transition from Historical-Comparative to Structural Linguistics, in Honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (see Books edited, above), ix-xxviii and xxix-lv (in both volumes).
"Dufriche-Desgenettes and the Birth of the Phoneme". The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Studies on the Transition from Historical-Comparative to Structural Linguistics, in Honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (see Books edited, above), 55-75.
"The Colonial Linguistics of Léopold de Saussure". History of Linguistics 1996: Papers from the Seventh International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS VII) Oxford, 12-17 September 1996), ed. by David Cram., Andrew Linn and Elke Nowak, vol. 1: Traditions in Linguistics Worldwide, 127-137. (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 94.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999.
"The Misery and the Splendour of Multiculturalism: A Reply to Michael Clyne". Managing Language Diversity, ed. by Sue Wright and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 129-134. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1998. [Also issued as vol. 4 (1997), no. 2 of the journal Current Issues in Language and Society; see under Articles in Refereed Journals, below.]
"Why Isn't Translation Impossible?" Language At Work: Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics held at the University of Birmingham, September 1997, ed. by Susan Hunston, 86-97. (British Studies in Applied Linguistics, 13). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1998.
"English in Hong Kong: Emergence and Decline". One Country, Two Systems, Three Languages: Changing Language Use in Hong Kong, ed. by Sue Wright and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 60-79. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1997. [Also issued as vol. 3 (1996), no. 2 of the journal Current Issues in Language and Society; see under Articles in Refereed Journals, below.]
"Ferdinand de Saussure and the Agenda of Twentieth-Century Linguistics". Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Language, ed. by Peter V. Lamarque. Oxford: Elsevier Science, 1997.
"The 'Language Myth' Myth; or, Roy Harris's Red Herrings". Linguistics Inside Out: Roy Harris and his Critics, ed. by Nigel Love and George Wolf, 9-41. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997.
"On Replotting the Beginnings of Western Language Theory". History of Linguistics 1993: Papers from the Sixth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS VI) (Washington, D.C., 9-14 August 1993) (see Books edited, above), 27-35.
"Indeterminacy, Translation and the Law". Translation and the Law, ed. by Marshall Morris, 13-36. (American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series, 8.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995.
"Trends in Twentieth-Century Linguistics: An Overview". Concise History of the Language Sciences: >From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists, ed. by E. F. K. Koerner and R. E. Asher, 221-233. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1995.
"Saussurean Tradition in Linguistics". Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists, ed. by E. F. K. Koerner and R. E. Asher, 233-239. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1995.
"The Gascon Enunciative as Syntactic Solution". Theoretical Analyses in Romance Linguistics, ed. by Christiane Laeufer and Terrell Morgan, 481-495. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series, 74). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1992.
"Isomorphic, Anisomorphic, and Heteromorphic Universals". Meaning and Grammar, ed. by Michel Kefer and Johan van der Auwera, 27-42. (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology Series.) Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992.
"Thinking Culturally: Self-Awareness and Respect for Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom" (with Madeleine Cottenet-Hage and Pierre Verdaguer). Development and Supervision of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages, ed. by Joel Walz, 209-227. (AAUSC Issues in Language Program Direction.) Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1992.
"Introduction: Linguistic Theory and Grammatical Description" (with Flip G. Droste). Linguistic Theory and Grammatical Description: Nine Current Approaches (see Books edited, above), 1-21.
"Latin Prepositions and Romance Syntax". New Analyses in Romance Linguistics, ed. by Dieter Wanner and Douglas A. Kibbee, 187-199. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series, 69). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1991.
"Levels of Consciousness in the Knowledge of Language". Languages and Standards: Issues, Attitudes, Case Studies, ed. by Makhan L. Tickoo, 11-22. Singapore: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Language Centre, 1991.
"The Abandonment of nómos in Greek Linguistic Thought". North American Contributions to the History of Linguistics, ed. by Francis P. Dinneen, S.J., and E. F. Konrad Koerner, 1-13. (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 58.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1990.
"Ideologizing Saussure: Bloomfield's and Chomsky's Readings of the Cours de linguistique générale". Ideologies of Language (see Books edited, above), 51-78.
"Introduction: Ideology, Science and Language" (with Talbot J. Taylor). Ideologies of Language (see Books edited, above), 1-6.
"Four Models of Linguistic Change". Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches to Linguistic Variation and Change, ed. by Thomas J. Walsh, 147-157. (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, 39.) Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1989.
"Inflection and Periphrastic Structures in Romance". Studies in Romance Linguistics, ed. by Carl Kirschner and Janet DeCesaris, 195-208. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series, 60.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1989.
"Popular and Scientific Beliefs about Language Status: An Historical Sketch". Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties, ed. by Ulrich Ammon, 243-255. (Foundations of Communication Series.) Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1989.
"Cultural and Linguistic Imperialism". Studies in Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures (I), ed. by Fidel Lopez Criado, 171-179. (Coleccion Tratados de Critica Literaria.) Madrid: Origines, 1988.
"First Person Singular Inversion in French". Advances in Romance Linguistics, ed. by David Birdsong and Jean-Pierre Montreuil, 171-188. (Publications in Language Sciences Series, 28.) Dordrecht and Providence: Foris, 1988.
"Historia y ficción". Las voces del karaí, ed. by Fernando Burgos, 19-20. Madrid: Eselsa-Edi 6, 1988.
"The Romantic Lie: Irving's 'A Tour on the Prairies' and Stendhal's Promenades dans Rome". The Old and New World Romanticism of Washington Irving, ed. by Stanley Brodwin, 127-137. New York, Westport, Ct., London: Greenwood Press, 1986.
"What Is Applied Language Study?". Applied Language Study: New Objectives, New Methods (see Books edited, above), xi-xiii.
Articles in Refereed Journals
"Pictet's Du beau (1856) and the Crystallisation of Saussurean Linguistics". Historiographia Linguistica 30 (2003), 365-388.
"Globalization and the Spread of English: The Long Perspective". Journal of Southeast Asian Education: The Official Journal of SEAMEO Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization 2 (2001), no. 2, Language Education: Regional Issues in the 21st Century, ed. by Goh Chi Lan and Christopher S. Ward, 212-240.
"Natural Language Versus the Literary Standard from Varro to Saussure". Journal of Literary Semantics 30 (2001), 19-36.
"Changing English, Linguistic Identity and ELT". PASAA: A Journal of Language Teaching and Learning in Thailand 30 (2000), 30-38.
"Language and 'Psychological Race': Leopold de Saussure on French in Indochina". Language and Communication 20 (2000), 29-53.
"The Tao of Identity in Heteroglossic Hong Kong". International Journal of the Sociology of Language, no. 143 (2000), Islands and Identity in Sociolinguistics, ed. by Tope Omoniyi, 15-31.
"The Unconscious and the Social in Saussure". Historiographia Linguistica 27 (2000), 307-334.
"A Matter of Consequenz: Humboldt, Race and the Genius of the Chinese Language". Historiographia Linguistica 26 (1999), 89-148.
"Back to Blavatsky: The Impact of Theosophy on Modern Linguistics" (with Christopher M. Hutton). Language and Communication 18 (1998), 181-204.
"The End of Languages As We Know Them". Anglistik 8 (1997), no. 2, 31-46.
"The Misery and the Splendour of Multiculturalism: A Reply to Michael Clyne". Current Issues in Language and Society 4 (1997), 129-134.
"Further Notes on R. E. Saleski with a Reprint of his 'Principle of Form in Historical and Psychological Linguistics' (1931)" (with Julia S. Falk). Historiographia Linguistica 23 (1996), 211-236.
"The Immediate Sources of the 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis'". Historiographia Linguistica 23 (1996), 365-404.
"'Undoubtedly a Powerful Influence': Victor Henry's Antinomies linguistiques (1896), with an annotated translation of the first chapter". Language and Communication 16 (1996), 117-144.
"English in Hong Kong: Emergence and Decline". Current Issues in Language and Society 3 (1996), 166-185. [See also Chapters in Books, above.]
"Natural Grammar, Arbitrary Lexicon: An Enduring Parallel in the History of Linguistic Thought". Language and Communication 15 (1995), 213-225.
"The Saleski Family and the Founding of the LSA Linguistic Institutes" (with Julia S. Falk). Historiographia Linguistica 21 (1994), 137-156.
"Paul Hanly Furfey and the Origins of American Sociolinguistics". Historiographia Linguistica 19 (1992), 111-143.
"'Core' and 'Periphery' in Historical Perspective". Historiographia Linguistica 19 (1992), 317-332.
"The Abandonment of nómos in Greek Linguistic Thought". Historiographia Linguistica 17 (1990), 1-13. [See also Chapters in Books, above.]
"The Centre Cannot Hold". Polylingua 1 (1990), 10-13.
"Language as a Cultural Commodity". Polylingua 1 (1990), 175-185.
"Poldygeist; or, Linguistic Prophecies of Bloom in Ulysses". Language and Style 23 (1990), 93-103. [Article written 1982-85, submitted and accepted 1985, appeared December 1993.]
"Bloomfield's Saussureanism". Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 43 (1989), 43-53. [Reprinted in Leonard Bloomfield: Critical Assessments of Leading Linguists, ed. by John Fought, vol. 2: Reviews and Meaning, 200-209, London and New York: Routledge, 1999.]
"The Genesis of Jakobson's 'Six Lectures on Sound and Meaning'". Historiographia Linguistica 16 (1989), 415-420.
"Typology, Diachrony, and Explanatory Order". Diachronica 6 (1989), 55-74.
"New French: A Pedagogical Crisis in the Making". Modern Language Journal 72 (1988), 31-36.
"Saussure's Meeting with Whitney, Berlin, 1879". Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 42 (1988), 205-214.
"Subject Relevance and Deferential Address in the Indo-European Languages". Lingua 73 (1987), 259-277.
"Man, History, Subject, Object: Calvino in Crisis". Review of Contemporary Fiction 6 (1986), no. 2, 24-30.
"'Superposed' Languages and Standardization". Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica ed Applicata 14 (1985), 35-52.